Today's episode is a deep dive into Rove, one of the easiest ways to earn more travel rewards without opening another credit card. Rove is a free program that lets you earn a separate currency called Rove Miles using the cards you already have, including up to 25x miles on hotels. The real standout is Rove's Loyalty Eligible hotel rate, which can let you earn Rove Miles while still earning hotel points and elite night credits, plus rewards from your credit card.

Rove Miles can also be transferred to a bunch of airline and hotel partners, including Flying Blue, Air Canada Aeroplan, Virgin Atlantic, and Lufthansa's Miles & More. We get into how those transfer partners work and why Miles & More can sometimes offer wildly cheap award flights, including economy tickets between North America and Europe for as little as 88 miles (though taxes and fees can still be significant).

We also look at a few Amex Offers worth checking, including targeted deals on Hilton, Hyatt, Lufthansa Group flights, and more.

Join Rove and get a 1,000-mile welcome bonus

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Google “how to travel for free,” and it’s amazing how quickly the answer becomes “open another credit card.”

And I obviously love a good travel card. But not everyone needs another one or is ready for one. That’s where Rove comes in.

This is Departure Digest. Today’s basically a masterclass in Rove, one of the easiest ways I’ve found to double, or sometimes even triple, your travel rewards from the same purchase.

Before we jump in, there are a few quick travel-related Amex Offers I need to tell you about.

If you’ve never used Amex Offers before, these are targeted deals that show up in your American Express account. You have to manually activate them before you make a purchase, and everyone gets different offers, so don’t assume you’ll see the same ones I do.

A few worth looking for right now: Hilton has an offer for spending $200 and getting $100 back. Some Hyatt resorts across the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America are eligible for a similar offer. There’s also one for Lufthansa Group flights booked through Amex Travel, and even a Hampton Jitney offer if you’re heading out East. It takes about 30 seconds to check, and it’s worth doing before you book anything.

Okay, back to Rove.

Rove is one of the more interesting rewards programs out there. It’s completely free to join, and instead of asking you to open another credit card, it lets you earn a separate rewards currency called Rove Miles while using the cards you already have.

If you sign up through our link, you’ll also get an elevated 1,000-mile welcome bonus with no spending required, so we’ll drop that below.

Here’s how you earn.

Hotels can earn up to 25 Rove Miles per dollar. Flights can earn up to 10. There’s also a shopping portal with more than 13,000 stores where you earn extra miles for purchases you were already planning to make.

But hotels are where Rove gets really interesting.

You know how double dipping your chip at a party is generally frowned upon?

In the points world, double dipping is kind of the dream.

Book what Rove calls a Loyalty Eligible hotel rate, and you can earn Rove Miles while still earning hotel points and elite night credits with the hotel’s own loyalty program. Then pay with a travel rewards card, and you may earn credit card rewards too.

That’s Rove Miles, hotel points, and credit card rewards from one hotel stay.

There’s a tradeoff, though.

Loyalty Eligible rates typically earn 5 Rove Miles per dollar, while Rove Rates can earn up to 25. Those higher earning rates usually don’t include hotel points or elite night credits, so don’t automatically pick the biggest mileage number. Compare the price and decide which option gives you more overall value.

Once you’ve earned Rove Miles, you’ve got two main ways to use them.

You can book travel directly through Rove, or you can transfer your miles to one of 20 airline and hotel partners. Most airline transfers happen at a 1:1 ratio, including programs like Air France Flying Blue, Air Canada Aeroplan, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and Lufthansa’s Miles & More.

One thing that makes Rove stand out is that it gives you access to a few airline programs that aren’t especially easy to reach through the major credit card points programs. Miles & More is a great example. From time to time, the program runs promotional award fares where you might see economy flights between North America and Europe starting at just 88 miles.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well... there’s a slight catch.

Those tickets can still come with a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees, so don’t assume 88 miles automatically means an amazing deal. But it’s a good reminder that award pricing can get really weird sometimes.

If you’ve already got a wallet full of travel cards, Rove isn’t replacing any of them. Think of it as another layer you can stack on top.

And if you’ve been curious about points and miles but weren’t looking to open another credit card just yet, it’s honestly one of the easiest places to start.

Okay, I know this episode was a little different than our usual format, but I had a lot of fun putting this one together, and I hope you enjoyed the deeper dive.

We’ve got links to everything we talked about today below, plus our full Rove guide with every transfer partner, earning rate, and redemption option if you want to keep reading.